Ewe Can Do IT (fun trial)

Paso Robles

Early morning on the 41 south coming into Paso Robles

I think there were more people than expected.  When they do another fun trial, they will need more sheep.

The trial field overlooked some spectacular scenery.  Vineyards everywhere you looked.  You can see the post by the judge's truck.  Your fetch is up the hill.

Looking across the vineyard at Alex Trebeck's place (Jeopardy)

Picture of the trial field.  The outrun was small, but they tried to make the crossdrive as wide as they could.   You can't see the first drive panels on the left.  The back corner was set-out.

Here's Eddie and Joe in the novice class.  They used one lamb and 2 older crossbred sheep for the novice and pro-novice.  I wasn't there for Sat., but they were "sour" on Sunday.  They didn't want to play.  More sheep will be needed if they have another trial.  It was nice to see so many novice dogs.

Lunch time barbecue at the barn.  That is the judge standing, Shelly Parker.  She did a nice job judging and offered trial tips to the exhibitors.  She gave me lots of suggestions. I appreciated that.

My fascination with turkey's.......:0)  I like how they stick their head out and give a large PPPffffft when they are pissed off.  Mr. Turkey wasn't exactly happy with me pointing my camera at him.

Looking to the right of the trial field.  Love the rolling hills.

Within sight was Windfall farms, an almost 800 acre thoroughbred farm.

Picture of one of the MANY facilities on Windfall Farms.

Hey, I'd live in one of the barns. :0)

I drove around the town of Creston just to see all of the beautiful farms.

Here's Eddie and Sheila (Kelpie).  They won the Pro-novice class on Saturday.

When Sheila's on, she is hard to beat.

How did my dogs do?  Fairly mediocre.  Kilt was still too fast.  The open dogs got 4 yearling lambs.  But, they had already run a zillion times on Saturday.  It was wishful thinking on my part, they would still be fresh.  But, they were difficult to shed and difficult to pen.  That was good.  Kilt was a jerk.  She scared them to death.  She can scare anything just with her eye let alone her PUSH.  The only nice work Kilt did was at the pen. Jet ran and he found the hill a bit hard on his old body to cover.  He got around and could be right up the lambs butts, because all sheep adore Jet.  Kilt has to be 100 feet off of sheep to have them work calmly.  I was a bit concerned about Yoko, because she has started to show some stress signs to me.  On occasion she will sniff the ground when she should be on her sheep.  She hasn't done that in months.  Plus, she has been a bit wimpy about covering confronting sheep.  I took her to put her on the lambs.  I had her in non-comp open.  I was just going to skip the sheds and let her work lambs.  But, they thought I would  have an unfair advantage of her knowing the field when I ran in pro-novice.  I'm not sure of the thinking there since I wasn't there on Sat.  but, I always go with the flow.  I even offered to run non-comp in pro-novice.  I surely don't need a ribbon.  I was just there for experience.  Anywho....Yo did fine till the the sheep went through the crossdrive panel and ran for the exhaust full steam ahead. Yo was tentative about covering because she knew she would be faced off.  She never takes her eyes off the sheep when confronted, but she has a limit to how close she will push into their heads before she jumps their wooly butts.  She jumped into them 3 times. That didn't do much for our last "drive line." She got them penned.  She was one of the few dogs that got them penned.  Many of the dogs had to be retired or helped.  They were going to have me run non-comp on the same sheep.  I asked for lambs for her or offered to scratch her.  I don't need Yoko creating a pattern of feeling like she has to jump in the sheep's faces.  God knows, we work enough sour sheep.  They gave me 3 lambs to work after pro-novice was over and I was very happy with her work.  I assisted her with covering the escape at the crossdrive.  She put all of her sheep through the panels and penned them.  She still has a tendency to "follow" along versus taking control and pushing the sheep.  She isn't happy walking into pressure.  I think she works sheep because she likes to work for me.  I am still encouraging Wayne to get going with her in agility.  She is too soft for me on sheep.  I do much better with a dog like her mother, Kilt.  LOL, that statement may be an "oxymoron."

On the positive side, I believe Yoko took 4th in pro-novice and her 2nd non-comp run was lovely.  She was much happier with the yearling lambs.  Onward and upward.